Britain has become a “neglectful society” where the elderly are driven into
care homes unnecessarily because they lack support from their families and
communities, the care minister has claimed.

Norman Lamb told The Daily Telegraph that older people were being let down by their friends and neighbours who should help them to live independently at home.

Local councils needed to help rebuild “neighbourly resilience” to stop pensioners leading dismal, lonely lives, he said, which would also reduce the burden on the state by avoiding the need for as many people to be moved into residential care.

Mr Lamb added that the care system would only cope with the pressures of an ageing population if individuals contributed to a “partnership between state and society”.

“We all have a part to play. In this way, we can make the system sustainable, and it can be a more decent society, a less neglectful society than we sometimes experience where we just expect the state to do everything,” he said.

Mr Lamb also confirmed that a government deal to cap spending on care fees will be announced in the coming weeks. The funding deal is likely to limit lifetime spending on care costs at £75,000, and ease means-testing rules.

However, he warned that the new funding agreement was “not a panacea” and said that more must be done to ensure the country could cope with the costs of an increasingly elderly population.

That means more efforts to reduce the flow of people into residential care, the Liberal Democrat minister said. Some pensioners were being “pushed” into care homes when, with the right help and support, they could remain at home, he said. Asked if some people were going into residential care unnecessarily, Mr Lamb replied: “Absolutely. The system pushes them there. The system does not do enough to help them maintain their independence.

He added: “With the right support and the right community resilience, and a rebuilding of the neighbour support that used to be there, more people could stay in their own homes for longer.

“We have lost the extended family because families have become dispersed. We need to rebuild that neighbourly resilience that helps people stay independent. If someone is living on their own never seeing anyone, that is a dismal existence, and it often ends up with it all collapsing and them going into a care home.

“Give them support, some companionship, and help them maintain activity in mind and body and everyone benefits.”

Local authorities should lead the way, Mr Lamb said. He highlighted work done by Leeds city council, which has encouraged residents, including the elderly, to “self-manage” health conditions, giving them control of public money to spend on adapting their homes to help them live independently. The minister said that councils should lead the way in encouraging people to help their neighbours stay out of care. “I want local authorities to be giving people guidance about how they can maintain their own resilience, using their friends, their neighbours, their community and in that way build resilience and reduce the burden on the state.”

Mr Lamb’s call for individuals to play a part in addressing the challenge of care may invite comparisons to David Cameron’s calls for a “Big Society”, but the minister insisted: “This is not the Big Society, it’s the decent society.”

He also insisted that moves to make people more independent, through personal care budgets and other reforms, owed more to Lib Dem than Conservative thinking. “It’s a very liberal concept, putting the individual in control, rather than the institution,” he said. Mr Lamb also said the Coalition had agreed to cap care costs, with an announcement due this month. However, he warned that the limit “does not remove all financial pressures”, saying that people will still have to pay for the residential component of living in a home.

Ministers are also changing the law to allow people to defer the sale of houses to pay for care until their death.

“No one will have to sell their home during their lifetime to pay for care,” Mr Lamb said.

He also promised that health ministers would take an “intolerant” approach to failings by NHS hospitals. A public inquiry into failures at Mid Staffordshire NHS trust is due to report next month. “If the report finds something awful going on, we should accept that and seek to work with them to change it,” Mr Lamb said. “We have to celebrate excellent care, but we also have to be utterly intolerant on neglect or abuse.”